The present invention relates generally to a method for transmitting a multi-point to point communication, and more particularly to a method for delivering an audio or multimedia greeting from a group of individuals to an individual or to another group of individuals.
There are many holidays and occasions during a year when people wish to convey their thoughts and feelings in a greeting to another person or group of people. These holidays and occasions include Mothe""s/Father""s Day, Christmas Day, birthdays, and the retirement date of a co-worker. On a number of these occasions, a group of people may collectively wish to deliver a greeting to another person or group of individuals.
One known method for collectively delivering a greeting from a group of individuals entails using a paper greeting card. For example, a group of siblings may each sign one greeting card and deliver the card to their mother on Mother""s Day. Similarly, a group of employees may each sign one card and deliver the card to a co-worker on the occasion of his/her birthday. Collectively signing and delivering a card to another person or group is easily organized and accomplished if everyone who wishes to sign the card is in the same geographic area and if all the participants have time in their schedules when the card is available for signing. Unfortunately, these location and time elements are not always easily coordinated. Siblings frequently live in different cities and office workers are often either on different work schedules or traveling away from the office on business near the date of a holiday or occasion.
Another known method for collectively delivering a greeting from a group of individuals is the family conference call. During a family conference call, several geographically separated family members are connected in one telephone call. Because each connected family member can hear and speak to all of the other connected family members, greetings are easily exchanged. However, this method requires prior coordination to ensure all the family members will be available to connect to the telephone call at the appointed time.
There is a need for a service which will allow a group of people, who may be geographically separated and/or on different time schedules, to create and deliver a greeting to another individual or to a group.
The present invention allows a group of people to create an audio or multimedia greeting, composed of individual inputs from members of the group, and deliver the greeting to an individual or another group of people. In one example of an embodiment of the present invention, to deliver an audio greeting, the members of the delivering group record their separate audio greeting using any telephone. The individual audio greetings are stored in the system, collated in a sequence, integrated into one greeting, and delivered to the recipient.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a group of individuals may simultaneously record their audio greeting using the system during a conference call. The integrated greeting can be delivered to the recipient in the form of an audio message over the telephone, through the mail over a recording medium (e.g., an audio cassette or a compact disc (CD)), over the Internet, or using any combination of these delivery methods. The delivery time of the integrated audio greeting can be pre-specified. In the first example mentioned above, individual contributors can access the system and listen to greetings previously recorded by other members of the group before providing their input.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, a multimedia greeting can be created and delivered using a multimedia device such as a personal computer (PC), a television (TV), or attachments to either of these devices. In one embodiment of the present invention, a first member of the group of contributors connects to the system and selects a starter multimedia greeting. Next, the remaining contributors annotate the multimedia greeting using either a sequential or parallel annotation method. For sequential annotation, the system transmits the starter multimedia greeting from one contributor to the next. Upon receiving the starter greeting, the individual contributor adds his/her annotation and transmits the starter greeting back to the system. Parallel annotation entails each individual contributor connecting to the system, when their individual schedules permit, and adding his/her annotation directly to the system. Each contributor may add multiple annotations, such as a voice annotation followed by a video annotation. The annotations from the contributors can be text-based, graphic, audio, or video in nature. The system then combines these individual annotations into one greeting. The delivery time of the integrated multi-media greeting can be pre-specified. Delivery and scheduling of the multimedia greeting can be accomplished via a computer network (e.g., the Internet), through the mail over a recording medium (for example, a video cassette, or a CD), on a TV or cable network, or using any combination of these delivery methods.